Small wonders

How To Design A Small But Beautiful Space Garden

by Jay Sifford

Property in Charlotte has become a precious commodity. As a result, many people are downsizing in order to live in their preferred parts of town. In other cases, a large house is no longer needed, and folks are feeling the need to simplify. As a child, I dreamed of living in the Biltmore House. As an adult, smaller spaces began to intrigue me.

Whether considering interior or exterior areas, small spaces can be challenging. Quality craftsmanship and materials become even more important in tight spaces because we see things up close. Additionally, small spaces generally need to be functionally flexible to allow for multiple uses. Perhaps you have downsized and, as a result, find yourself with a small courtyard or tiny corner lot and are coming up short thinking about how to transform your diminutive space into a multifunctional yet beautiful immersive garden. Fortunately, there are some design principles that can come to your rescue.

Paint can cover a multitude of design sins. Many smaller spaces are bordered by several different fence styles, along with one or more materials cladding the exterior walls of the home. Such a scenario reads as disjointed and haphazard, and fights against creating a tranquil outdoor space. If possible, considering painting the different surfaces the same color. Even if you choose a bold color, the disparity will be neutralized and the effect will be a neutral palette upon which to build. If feasible, consider repeating a paint color that you have used for your interior to create a seamless, homogenous indoor/outdoor environment. If painting is not possible, tall, narrow screening plants can mask the disparity.

Consider simplifying your outdoor planting containers and furniture. Many people own a collection of outdoor pots in a myriad of colors, styles and materials. Think about replacing those mismatched pots with others of one style, color and material for a cohesive look, then vary the sizes and shapes for interest. Built-in planting troughs will simplify the look even further. Additionally, consider donating your disparate collection of outdoor furniture and replacing it with furniture of one style. Doing so will create a clean, tranquil vibe with no clutter. You can add color through cushions, art and lush plants. Slight elevation changes can create garden “rooms” while preserving precious space. A simple 6-inch step-up can signify a change in purpose without adding walls or high partitions. I built a 6-inch-high deck on the back third of my new 300-square-foot walled courtyard to create a separate dining space. A low built-in trough planted with Carex further separates the area without compromising the open feeling. Visitors are amazed at how this actually makes the space feel larger rather than smaller. If you find yourself with a small, sloped backyard rather than a courtyard, terracing the space can greatly enhance your usable square footage.

These before and after photos show the author’s new 300-square-foot enclosed courtyard. Black walls and floor neutralize the space while repeating the interior floor color. A step-up deck with a low planter adds dimension while maintaining an open feel.

Think of ways to keep the eye low. Eyesores such as utility poles or lines and neighboring garages that exceed the height of privacy fences are generally above eye level. Horizontal fence slats or external home cladding will keep the eye low and moving around the space, making it feel larger. Vertical fences or cladding, by contrast, will pull the eye upward. Our eyes are hard-wired to follow lines. Use this natural inclination to your advantage when designing your small space.

Walkable 10-Stop

 This garden, designed by the author, was previously covered by inexpensive artificial turf. The redesign created an immersive, peaceful space. Wide bluestone plinths extend into the planting beds, creating continuity and interest while making the space feel wider.

 This garden, built on a small corner lot, lacked privacy. The planting scheme, full of interesting colors, textures and shapes, creates an immersive environment by keeping the eye low and busy.

On a related note, when installing stepping stones in a longer, narrower space, consider using longer rectangular stone plinths laid to partially span the area. Doing so will spread the eye out, causing the space to appear wider than it is.

Now let’s move on to the fun part: the plants! Plants used in a small area must bring multiseasonal interest to the space. For example, I would never use peonies in a small garden, as they bloom magnificently for two weeks then become mundane green blobs until they finally turn brown and crunchy by late summer. I would, however, use irises or Japanese maples. Even though the irises bloom for only a couple of weeks, their spiky foliage remains through the season and adds a strong, happy vertical element to the landscape. Japanese maples generally have exquisite spring and fall foliage color then provide sculptural focal points when leafless through the winter months.

Go heavy on foliage color and texture to create an immersive, tranquil garden experience. Small conifers, smaller clumping bamboos, ferns and grasses are perfect choices for integrating texture into the garden. Coleus and heucheras are indispensable when it comes to introducing bold foliage color. When choosing flowering perennials, consider those with long bloom seasons. Many of the verbenas, dianthus, Stokesia, asters, sedums, summer-blooming alliums, hardy geraniums such as ‘Rozanne,’ and coreopsis are recommended choices.

Finally, have fun creating your magical garden space. Use these design guidelines to create a unique place that is all your own. SP

Jay Sifford is a Charlotte-based landscape designer who specializes in contemporary, Asian and transitional gardens. His work has been featured in Southern Living, Country Gardens and Fine Gardening, as well as Houzz and several books. siffordgardendesign.com

Notable New Releases

compiled by Sally Brewster

The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape by Katie

Holten

In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply thoughtful collection, Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world. With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from over 50 contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert Macfarlane and Zadie Smith, Holten illustrates each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb

A riveting page-turner about a determined professor who uncovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time — that his music was stolen from someone else, a young Black woman. In 1920s Manhattan, Josephine Reed, is living on the streets and frequenting jazz clubs when she meets the struggling musician Fred Delaney. But where young Delaney struggles, Josephine soars. She’s a natural prodigy who hears beautiful music in the sounds of the world around her. With Josephine as his silent partner, Delaney’s career takes off — but who is the real genius here?

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of a grand and mysterious house, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia. Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost 20 years, she now finds herself struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital. At Nora’s house, Jess discovers a book that chronicles the police investigation into a long-buried crime: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this infamous event — a murder mystery that has never been resolved satisfactorily. An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live three robots: fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there, too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labeled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio — a past spent hunting humans. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. Together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming. Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by

David Grann

On Jan. 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were 30 emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then, six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The 30 sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes — they were mutineers. SP

Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books. 4139 Park Rd., parkroadbooks.com.